Lately, I've Been Making Lists
On grappling with the moral implications of vibe-coding and getting rich quick.
Hey friends,
Lately, I’ve been making lists. These lists consist of ideas that I could, in theory, vibe code. For the uninitiated, vibe-coding1 refers to the notion that one can now create a product that, heretofore, was the purview of a set of skilled programmers, simply using tools like Claude and Gemini.2 These lists range from trading platforms for building component circularity to the modern-day equivalent of Mavis Beacon teaching assistants to enable critical thinking skills in kids, particularly in a world of gen AI and “new” media.
On the one hand, I genuinely think that this kind of exercise would be rewarding. Activities that I once felt were completely outside the realm of possibility for me are now, to some degree, feasible. Moreover, the process of building these products would actually require me to conduct detailed research into the underlying topics in order to create a coherent product. In the case of a kid’s critical thinking tool, this would include such topics as the latest in child psychology and developmental stages, how one actually builds an app, understanding best practices in differentiating source material and traceability, and creating an argument. Not even considering how to make this in any way fun for kids. But what a way for me to learn!
Now, that’s pretty cool.
But, on the other hand, there is a part of me that sees this as the passive income dream, beaten into me by the hustle culture that imbued my college years and early 20s, made real. I mean, there’s that kid from Columbia who turned his product to game coding interviews into an app that apparently has a 7-figure ARR in less than four months. There’s Gamma app, a team of 30 with an 8-figure ARR. I could have the cloistered desert home with the brushed concrete floors. I could center my days around creating and learning and engaging in my community in truly meaningful ways and pontificating philosophically because I would have financial independence (with obscene buffer). I could just float along! I could be like Rick.
And and, perhaps more darkly, there is the creeping need to become the one controlling the machine, not controlled by it. If I can pump and dump some ideas with serious ARR before we fall off this prophesied AGI precipice, then I will at least have made my money before all the good ideas and jobs have been taken and outsourced to it. I wouldn’t have to worry so much anymore.
Yet, I fight to resist this, not least because the technologists have a vested interest in boosting the “AGI is right around the corner” narrative. For one, I enjoy my work, even if I would love more hours in the day for my creative and collective self. So, too, do I remain steadfast in my belief that the get rich quick schemes would never quite do it for me (I mean…assuming they hypothetically worked). This understanding is, somehow, the way I know that I will ultimately retain my humanity. Much as I find the current iteration of cryptocurrency to be a cynical scam for the ”fuck you, I got mine -types”,3 I do not want to contribute to a world where the only person truly benefiting is the founder who is getting even richer. We don’t need more extreme wealth consolidation and the associated plutocratic power trips it facilitates.
In the messy world of morality, though, I still believe the ideas I have are valuable, and could make a positive contribution. In that vein, I could vibe code them to make them freely available, which actually speaks to me much more than monetizing them. Perhaps what I really wish for AI is that it will allow us to re-wild the internet,4 for tools to be open-source since we don’t need to worry about repaying the investor or the banks or the freelance contractor because we’ve just used Claude. In fact, making them free is the best I - at least - could do as recompense for the knowledge, data, and labor that us unwitting plebs provided to the tech companies for free, and from which these companies are now profiting. (But, lo! were those few years of Graffiti and Farmville worth it!!)
The imbalance will remain - these folks will have benefited from a market system that inadequately values the inputs and unfairly distributes the externalities.5 That ship has sailed. But the way I can choose to engage with it remains human-centered, in the ways that I can still carve out.
Your pal,
AL
We took our annual sojourn to the Great Escape Festival in Brighton a few weeks ago. Standouts included Miss Kaninna, Tjaka, and Mainline Magic Orchestra. Enjoy.
There is a spider web in my neighbor’s garden on the cherry tree that is currently perfectly spotlighted by a late afternoon sunbeam. What have you noticed lately?
Reddit threads abound with metaphorical scoffing from actual programmers, but the idea stands.
ChatGPT was apparently down to me so it’s dead to me now. Also, Sam Altman gives me bad vibes so, equally, dead to me.
Before I get yelled at, I recognize the ethos of blockchain and defi is theoretically interesting, I just firmly do not agree the theory of defi has been executed in any meaningful way by any of the services or coins on offer.
And maybe re-wild ourselves? A thought train for another time.
I think it’s important to be clear here that I don’t think these folks are all supervillains per se. That’s an easy narrative trap to fall into.I think they are intelligent, hard-working people who also happened to be in the right place at the right time. What I disagree with is the idea that there is a linear relationship between intelligence, productivity, and monetary wealth.